Tilley

I am new to this forum and have had issues with very poor gas mileage. I was getting about 9 mpg on the freeway. My mustang is a 1965 with a straight 6 200ci motor. I had an Autolite 1100, but the distributor was a from some other car with a twin vacuum advance nozzles on it.

Here is a picture of the carb I had:



I got a rebuilt carb exactly the same, BUT without the spark control valve (circled in red above).

This is a picture of the distributor I have on the car now, except I have a new Petronix Ignitor I with a Petronix hi power coil:



The car runs really good now, with great pick up and acceleration, and I am now getting about 19-20 mpg on the freeway.

According to this website:

http://classicinlines.com/Loadomatic.asp

...this is the wrong carb for my distributor (no spark control valve), and with this combo, Petronix is not a good thing to have. While I understand the why's presented in this article, my car still runs good and is getting 19-20 mpg.

Am I good to go with the combo I have now, or am I about to see bad times ahead?

One other question while I hopefully have your attention...

How do I adjust the automatic choke so that it opens when cold within a couple on minutes?

Tilley

To clarify, I had an Autolite 1100 with the spark control valve. I traded in that one for a rebuilt Autolite 1100 without the spark control valve.

001mustang

my first thought is your distributor probably has a mechanical advance.
can you verify?
if you decide to inspect dist make sure you write the numbers stamped on mechanical limit arms.
w/ vac disconnected.
what is your idle advance?
what is your all in tot advance at 3000 rpms?

what jets are in your carb?

19-20 mpg is right.

what is plug color post interstate cruise and ign shut down?

if it were me i would go on to the next project.
unless you are just curious.
pertronics will cause no harm that i'm aware of.

do you have an executive summary of harm proposed by article?

Tilley

Thanks for your input. I will try get get more info and post later today.

001mustang

sure.

sounds like your car only needs driving judging from mileage.

was curious of pertronics incompatibility theory.
but was to lazy to read.
no biggie.

frdnut

To adjust your choke to have it open quicker loosen the screws around that black cap and turn it in the direction of the "leaner" arrows...It will take some trial and error to get it right so just turn it a little at a time...Also that bracket is meant to hold one of your heater hoses so the housing will get hot and turn off the choke when the engine is warmed up...Is that metal pipe going to the choke housing attached to a heat source(exhaust manifold)?..You must have a heat source to turn off the choke or it will not work properly..

Tilley

Yeah, but the metal fitting only slides in maybe 1/4 of an inch. It seems to me it should be fastened tightly to the intake manifold instead of loosely sliding into a small hole.

Is that the way it should be?

tx65coupe

I was going to say the same thing about the heater hose bracket on the choke.

PaulS

The metal line that goes to your housing is supposed to tighten up. It supplies heated air to the choke to get it to open up. There is also supposed to be a hose clamped in the bracket to assist in heating the choke.
You have a "Load-o-matic" distributor and it uses manifold and venturi vacuum to advance the spark. There is no mechanical advance in the distributor.
You should be getting around 27 MPG. With the choke heater tube loose the choke is not heating up fast enough. Using the wrong carb will cause a lack of timing advance that will further reduce gas mileage.
Your initial problem was probably a combination of a bad spark valve and the inoperative choke. Fix the line that goes to the choke housing, mount one of the heater hoses (not the one coming from the water pump) so it sits in the clamp on the choke housing and then adjust your choke by loosening the three screws that hold the clamp to the housing and turn just the black housing until it just closes when cold. (the part with the line and the clamp don't turn - just the black plastic housing).
You may want to carefully check that the metal line that supplies heated air to the choke is in one piece from the exhaust manifold to the choke fitting. They are known to rust off or become brittle with age and heat and crack.

kalli

if the distributor doesn't have a mechanical advance then it won't compensate for the higher rpms. most mechanical advances are full in at 3000-3500, and I'd be betting that's about the engine rpm you'd see on a freeway in your car.
I fully agree as well, if you can't pick up the venturi vacuum, then you'll need a different distributor. why not pick up a mechanical advance+vacuum advance distributor (used) for your engine and move the pertronix over to it? i wouldn't run the car that way. Ignition would be too late
no power, bad gas mileage and probably running hot